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April 13, 2008

Catching up with...the Seattle Supersonics

The Mavs finish their final road trip of the regular season, and will play another seemingly meaningless game against a team in a sad-sack city with a team likely on its way out of town. Depressing? Try being a Seattle Supersonics fan right now.

More on the Seattle farewell game, Kevin Durant's rookie year and the draft lottery after the jump:

Teamless in SeattleAfter 41 years in Seattle, it looks like the Sonics really are leaving town. It seems hard to believe, but it really is going to happen, and the fans in Seattle are none too happy about it. Some have gone through anger, depression, retribution and the gamut of emotions tied to the departure of something you have no control over. Some fan groups tried to organize to prevent owner Clay Bennett from moving the team to Oklahoma City, but they look like pipe dreams. Now, with what looks like the final game in Seattle in the Sonics rich history tonight, you can expect something interesting. Whether the organization will do something nice for the die-hards or the fans will merely rain boos and hold up obscene signs about Bennett remains to be seen.

Durant likely the ROYAlthough some of us (myself included) might have other choices for Rookie of the Year, there's really no way he isn't going to win this thing. His best month of play was in March when he averaged 21.8 points on 52.6 percent shooting, and he's averaging just over 20 points per game on 42.6 percent shooting for the season. Oklahoma City is going to love this kid.

Number 29With Minnesota's win last night, the Sonics clinched the second-worst record in the NBA for the season. That means they will have a 19.9 percent chance of landing a top three selection in this year's draft. Either way, the worst pick they'll have will be the fifth pick, so that means they'll have had three top five picks in the last two seasons. Whoever they land (Derrick Rose sure would fit nicely) will put them in the driver's seat to rebuild in Oklahoma City.

Burning questionWhen they move to Oklahoma, will they drop "Supersonics" and go for a different moniker?